Question: if you could wave a magic wand and modify CO to make it the absolute best gaming experience ever, what would you change and what would you keep?

Its a good question that should be asked every few months.

I'd get rid of all the RP instances, just to make the RP people sad.
I'd keep laughing.

Your turn.

Ok seriously...
I'd remove all the frivolous Action figures and have player craftable/costumizeable ones and
that would be a power framework all to itself. Action figures would be made just like characters.
Developer AF would become a once a day summonable super being.
"You've got an army? They have a Hulk? I have Akinos!"

Ok now its really your turn.

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05-20-2012, 02:53 AM

A lot of bug fixes would be a good start (well, not "a lot", just fix the reccuring bugs which pester us since the dawn of time)

Also, 2 ideas which would make PvE and PvP more awesome

PvE : The Sidekick system (http://forums.champions-online.com/showthread.php?t=143066), it'd be more fun to level your chars when helped with one of your level 40 (or more? a man can dream... yay, solo 5-hero team! :D)

PvP : We have 2 PvP : AT and Freeform. Make that 3 :
- AT
- Casuals who have concept chars
- Uber-munchkins who don't care about concept, are just a soulless compilation of every broken power in the game, and steamroll your face when you want to try PvP with your much-loved concept char
And no, I have no idea about how you can have an algorythm tell if you're a concept or some kind of antigame jerk, that's the sad part of this suggestion :(

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05-20-2012, 03:52 AM

Once all the bugs would be fixed, I would add more variety of challenges such as ambushes, Bosses with a complex IA (example : Black Harlequin), more rp features (emotes, instances, ...), a new pvp tier (lvl 40 freeform).
A game that would look like it's expanding and growing rather in a constant work-in-progress state.

Archived Post

05-20-2012, 03:47 PM

The Foundry...

Specifically beyond that would be fully custom Nemesis chain, boundless costume creation, more hideout options and uses, and a new zone every 6-8 months.

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05-20-2012, 06:01 PM

Since we're waving magic wands to change the game, I'm gonna step outside the box and talk about things that could only be done by magic.

I would take all the best parts from CoX and DCUO, as well as all the things they have that seemed cool at first but turned out to be buggy as hell (wall crawling/running), remove all of their bugs and fuse them into CO. Remove all the bugs from CO, expand all locations to be as big and alive feeling as GTA or Saints Row. Add customizable vehicles to go along with travel powers. Allow playable Nemeses with full, city destroying capabilities i.e.: GTA/Saints Row. Make the NPC heroes more realistic (actually being heroes rather than standing around). Have random, epic battles against NPC Nemeses and Villains, like robotic villains piloting giant battle suits through the city. Add the ability to have a secret identity and explore that city as if you were one of the NPCs. Have flashy, dynamic ways to change into costume, or change from one costume to the next. Allow seamless travel from the ground to space (always wanted to fly straight up through the atmosphere into space with my flying heroes). Allow travel between areas to be done with travel powers (why does a super speedster, or flying hero need a jet or helicopter?) Have NPC's do realistic crimes (car jackings, muggings, weapon and drug deals, arson, armed robberies, vandalism) and allow playable Nemeses to do these crimes allong with super villainous crimes.

I'm sure I could think of more, but I'm tired so I'll stop there.

Archived Post

05-21-2012, 12:30 AM

I would make a few more NPC-exclusive costume pieces available to players, get rid of unnecessary restrictions for costume pieces being used together and find a way to get all the crafting unlockers back. And make the "legacy crafter" TPs available in some other way.
I would add a few NPC-exclusive and some new powers for players to chose.
I would re-open the crafting stores and even keep the "retro" Powerhouse in Vibora Bay. It suits the darker tone of the city.
I would add equipment slots for cosmetic and functional power replacers, as well as aura costume pieces in the same way it's done in CoX.
I would expand the nemesis system, adding a few new power sets, minion types and more missions. Also, I would use the mercenary villains from nemesis missions as replacement nemeses in alerts instead of those Infernals in random costumes.

And of course, I would also love to see a Japan zone added. But I really shouldn't do that all on my own. ;)

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05-21-2012, 03:41 AM

A nemesis-driven story-arc, whith differences depending on nemesis type, the size of a whole zone that includes several player-made NPCs including optional love-interest, optional family members, optional sidekick/ward, friend servent etc, optional secret identity. Missions would include rescuing the NPCs repeatedly, struggles to keep your own and/or team-mates secret identity secret, involvement of all teammates nemesis with team-leaders nemesis as the leader.

A whole zones worth of stories where the player and their struggle with their nemesis is the focus of the story.

Archived Post

05-21-2012, 05:11 AM

After all bugs are more or less fixed?
1 - More zones, so every level bracket may have two or three zone choices.
2 - More detailed nemesis system, where quest are matching villain powers and personality, with fully customizable henchmen.
3 - More serious game world presentation. I would get rid of most of cheap jokes and dumb NPC speech and candy colorized textures. Along with redesining most of the mooks, so they don't look like refugees from the cartoon. STO is made with this same engine and doesn't look like a kindergarten.
Also, I would get rid of all stupid jokes like this one (her bio): http://www.champions-online-wiki.com/wiki/Amazing_Grace
4 - More city zones, both hi-tech and gritty ones.
5 - More immersive quest and stories. A zombie wave where players must fight off wave after wave of undead monsters to protect innocent civilians is a good example.
6 - I would get rid of all mooks already spawned on the MC streets. They should be moved to the buildings and severs. Instead, I would like to see more real crime on the streets - muggery, bank robbers and so on.

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05-21-2012, 05:22 AM

...*points to sig link "I, Have a Dream" ;)

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05-21-2012, 08:57 AM

Maybe this was suggested before, but what about npcs reacting to your look?

Like if you are a demonic wolf-taco, people would run in fear, comment about your looks, be somewhat uneasy with you around and with a special script to notice this!! :D

Archived Post

05-21-2012, 07:16 PM

3 - More serious game world presentation. I would get rid of most of cheap jokes and dumb NPC speech and candy colorized textures. Along with redesining most of the mooks, so they don't look like refugees from the cartoon. STO is made with this same engine and doesn't look like a kindergarten.
Also, I would get rid of all stupid jokes like this one (her bio): http://www.champions-online-wiki.com/wiki/Amazing_Grace

But i like the humour. This game has the potential to cover the entire range of comic styles. Every age, every era. We should have dark gritty sombre stuff, heartbreaking personal drama stuff, ironic satire stuff, optimistic inspirational stuff, belly-laugh stuff (not many games have actually made me laugh out loud the way some of the item descriptions and npc comments in this game have. It's not for everyone but it does have value).

Give us some gritty humorless areas sure, where players if they want it can have their 'Gwen Stacey dies' moment (but no-one needs a girlfriend-in-the-refridgerator moment) and their dark bitter cynical heroes struggling in a dark sombre realm where no victory is without tragic cost if enough people want it, but also let's keep our silver-age wonders and our puns too, after all plenty of people like Batman the Brave and the Bold too, it's dvd's are still selling at my local department store, it's not all The Dark Knight. The Avengers movie had it's share of humour and laugh-out-loud moments too.

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05-21-2012, 09:46 PM

One post is sufficient. No need to argue why you dont' want someone elses magic wand changes.
This is magic wand change after all.

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05-21-2012, 10:58 PM

Maybe this was suggested before, but what about npcs reacting to your look?

they already do, they tell me I'm this year's fashion disaster...

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05-22-2012, 03:04 AM

We should have dark gritty sombre stuff, heartbreaking personal drama stuff, ironic satire stuff, optimistic inspirational stuff, belly-laugh stuff
We don't have too much except a wanna-be laugh stuff which is funny only once and not for everyone.
And thank to this we don't have too much (if any) real immersion.
The current so-called humor is maybe entertaining for the people who are already in game but that's all.

Getting rid of perhaps of two thirds of the current comedy can only restore the balance.
So we can actually have a game like this:
One third part of humor and comic relief.
One third part of gritty and dark stuff.
One third part of actually serious heroic play. Not to gritty and not to silly, just heroic.

Currently we have something like this:
One big part of not always funny but always forced bright plastic comedy.
And a small fraction of actually immersive and serious stuff, which is sometimes spoiled by being ridiculously overly dark, or with completely opposite things like the Amazing Grace ******** bio (the first time I saw it, it completely killed Bloodmoon for me).

I don't believe that DCUO is better game than CO. It's awful and if it's doing (barely) better than CO is only because of IP and presentation.

And no matter how much it saddens me, comic as a mainstream medium is dead and most people don't care about every age and every comic era.